The Pokémon TCG Meta Snapshot is an article that aims to encapsulate the state of the meta for a given 1 month period.
The Pokémon TCG Meta Snapshot also aims to rank decks in a somewhat lesser tier system. The tiers that we will use are as follows:
Tier 1: Highly Competitive Meta Decks. 10% or more of tops based on Limitless Online Tournament Platform deck spread and/or at least WIN a big official event once (Regionals, Internationals, or Special Event).
Tier 2: Semi-Competitive Meta Decks. Less than 10% of tops are based on the Limitless Online Tournament Platform deck spread.
Tier 3: Semi-Competitive non-Meta/Rogue decks. 1-2 tops. Specifically includes decks that only top small events or get lower rankings at medium events. Can also include decks that can potentially top but have not yet in a given format.
Tier 4: Casually Competitive non-Meta decks. Decks that can compete at the local level, but cannot top an event.
Tops = 1st - 8th place.
This article is written based on the Paradox Rift format.
Deck Overview
Miraidon ex has its ups and downs in the current format. Its type can easily overpower Lugia VSTAR because of weakness and its damage can easily knock Pokemon such as Zacian V and Chien-Pao ex. It also has a great ability that can call out other Basic Lightning Pokemon such as Raikou V and Raichu V which can be very helpful in setting up the board. You also have Electric Generator which can easily accelerate energy from the deck although you may need some luck with it.
Table of Contents:
Miraidon ex (Scarlet & Violet)
We are back again with Miraidon ex. It seems this card has had its ups and downs quite frequently since its release. It has strong supporting cards since its release and people are trying to make the most of it but not until recently, the deck seems to be a bit underwhelming. From what I can think of, the format used to be filled with Pokemon V which has high HP and it can easily evolve to VMAX or VSTAR which has a high HP that Miraidon ex cannot be knocked. But now, since the format starting to be filled with more Pokemon ex, Miraidon ex can shine with how fast it can be accelerated. Let’s talk about this card one by one.
Firstly, Tandem Unit is the name of its ability. Because you can use this ability more than once if you have another Miraidon ex, it is an extremely powerful ability that can set up the board in a single turn. Because the majority of the Pokemon in the Miraidon ex deck are Basic Pokemon, you can essentially call anything to the board with Miraidon ex without the assistance of another searcher, which makes setting up the board rather simple. You may need to exercise caution though, as Path to the Peak is a card that will always provide challenges. However, when it comes to Pokemon search, this ability is actually among the best overall in my opinion.
Then we have its attack, Photon Blaster which deals 220 damage. In terms of damage, it is actually a great number to have because you can still knock some Pokemon V or Pokemon ex with low HP and deal an OHKO to any Pokemon that is weak to Lightning-type. But the drawback is quite harsh where you can’t attack the next turn you use this attack. It may sound easy because you can just switch this Pokemon out and go with another Miraidon ex. But the big problem lies in its attack cost which is high where you need 2 Lightning Energy and a single Colorless Energy. We do have an acceleration card such as Electric Generator or Flaaffy, but because these cards need certain requirements to work properly, it falls off the equation pretty quickly.
First is Electric Generator which basically is a Max Elixir exclusive for Lightning-type Pokemon where you need to really bet the top 5 cards of your deck are somewhat filled with Lightning Energy. Even some people are already saying that Max Elixir is quite bad because you only look at the top 6 cards of your deck but Electric Generator is even less with 5 cards which makes the chance of hitting energy quite low. Next is Flaaffy, yes it is a very simple energy accelerator and it is already being released way back before the Scarlet & Violet era. But the big problem is if you see the Pokemon lineup in the Miraidon ex deck (you can also see it in the Winners’ Decklist part down below) they have something in common, they don’t have a draw engine besides a draw supporter. This makes the deck quite bricky and the hope to discard a Lightning Energy card while finding Flaaffy to evolve your Mareep into is quite hard. You can try using Radiant Greninja as your simple draw engine while discarding a Lightning Energy to fill up your discard pile. But because it is a Water-type Pokemon, you can’t call it to the bench using Miraidon ex and in my opinion, benching Radiant Greninja in this kind of deck is also a drawback because you cannot fully utilize your bench space for a surprise Pokemon or the second/third Flaaffy. But you are welcome to try that.
Like Zacian V, Miraidon ex has great damage with a drawback, but its ability is quite remarkable for its era. All things considered, Miraidon ex is a very good Pokemon ex. When it comes to the standard Miraidon ex deck, players typically bring three copies since Raikou V, which we will discuss next, is another formidable attacker.
Raikou V (Brilliant Stars)
The legendary beast Raikou is up next. It is our only draw engine with its ability even though we only get 1 card draw. But, perhaps all it takes to win the game is one card. Next, we look its attack, which has the potential to do 220 damage, much like Miraidon ex. Nevertheless, Raikou V's attack depends on how many Pokemon each player had on the Bench, thus if your opponent is aware that you are using Raikou V, they might not fully utilise their bench space to reduce Raikou V's damage.
With that said, you may think that Raikou V is not a good companion for Miraidon ex. But here’s the thing, you may overlook its attack cost because it only cost 1 Lightning Energy and 1 Colorless which is a very cheap thing to have if you can hit Lightning Energy cards off your Electric Generator. You can also comfortably go second and just hit with all you got using Raikou V in your first turn because of its low attack cost. Setting up Raikou V is also simple because it is a Basic Lightning Pokemon so Miraidon ex can easily call it onto the bench and let Electric Generator do the job. However, Raikou has the same problem quite similar to almost any Lightning Pokemon nowadays which is its low HP compared to similar Pokemon such as Suicune V and Entei V. But still, its swiftness to attack at your first turn with the help of Electric Generator is incomparable to the other Pokemon.
Given how excellent the card is, you might consider adding at least 3 copies of it to the deck. However, Raikou V is not the most important Pokemon in this case because you can still attack using Miraidon ex and load your deck with additional Pokemon like Raichu V, Flaaffy, or Iron Hands ex. It is still acceptable to bring two copies of Raikou V, or even just one, as its low HP and attack can easily lead to your downfall if you are not playing with caution.
Raichu V (Brilliant Stars)
Then there's Raichu, our not-so-little-cute mouse! Due to the abundance of powerful Pokemon and some Fighting-type Pokemon in the format, Raichu V hasn't been able to compete very well since its release. Some decks, like Boltund V/VMAX, are able to play Raichu V despite the lacklustre outcome. However, since the Scarlet & Violet era began, things have started to go better. Raichu V is gaining a lot of attention in the deck as an attacker with incredible damage-dealing potential thanks to Miraidon ex's help.
Let’s see its first attack first. Its first attack, Fast Charge, is easily a great attack in the first turn because you can stack more Lighting Energy on the board so you can get higher damage. Another great thing is that you can use it in your first turn too! This means that you can easily get 2 energy attachments in your first turn. Yes, you still need the energy required to use this attack, but finding a Lightning Energy card in the Miraidon ex deck is easier as you have a higher count of energy than the normal deck does (except for Dialga VSTAR). However, this will leave your Raichu V open in the Active which can be a very dangerous spot as some decks can easily attack in the first turn. You may want to keep this in mind if you don’t want your Raichu V getting knocked.
The interesting things then start to happen with its second attack, Dynamic SJuho. For every Lightning Energy card attached to being discarded, it has a 60 damage multiplier. With so much assistance from cards like Flaaffy and Electric Generator, this attack can quickly hit large numbers. Additionally, you can easily stack up to 120 damage with your first attack in the hopes that you won't be knocked out the next turn. Because you can hit for more than 240 in a single attack and simply recycle the energy back using Flaaffy, this can be a very surprising attack in the second turn or even in the late game. It also only has 2 Lightning Energy as its attack cost which is cheap as you can easily call Raichu V using Miraidon ex, attach manually, and just use Flaaffy’s ability or Electric Generator to fill the rest. This is why Raichu V is a great pair in the Miraidon ex deck.
However, like the other Lightning-type Pokemon out there, its HP is a bit low at 200HP which makes it more vulnerable to more Pokemon. But hey, you can just knock them out before they can attack you, right? Raichu V can be a surprise factor in the deck as you can easily call it out and charge it at the same time while attacking with high damage. As for how many copies you want to bring, 1 to 2 copies is the number here because not all the time you can maximize its potential and you can just use Miraidon ex which has more HP and less energy to attack with similar damage.
Flaaffy (Evolving Skies)
Next is Flaaffy, the supporting Pokemon for the Miraidon ex deck. Since its introduction, Mareep and Flaaffy have been excellent supporting Pokemon in terms of energy acceleration because their HP is less than 90, thus you can search them with a Level Ball. For sure, you have energy acceleration on the board, but 90 HP is a very risky number because Radiant Greninja may easily snipe it off with Moonlight Shuriken. If Radiant Greninja is popular in your area, you might want to reconsider your decision to play Flaaffy.
If you must play Flaaffy, though, this card makes a very good combination with Raichu V because it's simple to recycle the Lightning Energy that is discarded while utilizing the Electric Generator to find extra energy. Another option is to try evolving it into Ampharos ex, which has a powerful attack and higher HP. However, since you will have to choose between Basic Energy cards and more Flaaffy copies, deck space may become an issue if you want to include Ampharos ex or even high copies of the Flaaffy evolution line. Therefore, many decks now tend to bring only a 2-2 line of Flaaffy or 3-3 line to make sure the deck can make more space for Energy cards and other cards such as Electric Generator or even more copies of Raikou V and Raichu V.
Other Things to Consider
As always, there are many things that make the Miraidon ex decks a very strong deck. Here are the other things that you can consider adding to your deck.
Iron Hands ex (Paradox Rift)
To the Future! Up next is the newcomer from the new Paradox Rift set, Iron Hands ex. This card gains a lot of debate because of its attack’s effect which can easily take another Prize card. This is a very big game changer because you can possibly win a very quick game using Iron Hands ex as you can knock your opponent two times only. You may also want to take note that Iron Hands ex is a Lightning-type Pokemon which can be called easily by Miraidon ex’s ability so you can easily use it as an element of surprise. It has 230HP which survives some of the high-hitting attacks because some of the attacks only go to 200 damage or 220 damage so Iron Hands ex can still survive the attack. Then, looking at its Retreat Cost, I think it is nearly impossible if you want to do a manual retreat because it has 4 Retreat Cost unless you use some Retreat Cost reducer such as Future Booster Energy Capsule which I will talk about next.
The next thing is its secondary archetype, Future. Because it is a Future Pokemon, you can use other Future cards to complement Iron Hands ex for example to boost its attack using Future Booster Energy Capsule while also completely erasing its Retreat Cost so you have free retreat cost. This sole Tool card alone can help Iron Hands ex by a mile because it somehow clears up some of the major problems that Iron Hands ex has. You can also use Techno Radar to search Iron Hands ex because Techno Radar can search for any Future Pokemon. But what’s interesting is coming up next, its attack!
First, we look at its first attack, Arm Press. It has 2 Lightning Energy and 1 Colorless energy cost which is a bit high but because it is a Lightning-type deck, you can use Electric Generator to accelerate Lightning Energy to the Pokemon although you may need some luck with it. The attack has 160 damage which is enough to knock any Pokemon that has Lightning-type weakness even Garchomp ex. This is a good sign because you can easily use a Basic Pokemon to knock even a stage-2 Pokemon ex. But if you don’t count any weakness multiplier, this attack is just plain bad because 160 damage won’t get you far and it even cannot do a 2-turn knockout on Charizard ex. But, the main spotlight is not Arm Press. Let’s see the second attack, Amp You Very Much!
The second attack, Amp You Very Much, is a walking controversy because of its effect. First, it has a 4 energy attack cost where it has 1 Lightning Energy and 3 Colorless as its configuration. This alone can be done easily using the help of both Electric Generator and Double Turbo Energy so you basically can attack in your first turn. Then, it has a small 120 damage. But it is already enough to knock some of the VSTAR Pokemon if you use Future Booster Energy Capsule and do weakness damage to the opponent. However, the fun part is its effect. You get to take 1 more Prize card if you manage to knock out your opponent using this attack. This alone is already a headache if you are using a Lost Box deck because most of your cards are single-prize card that has low HP. Then, you can also utilize Iron Hands ex to finish up injured Pokemon as you will also take more Prize cards so you may take the win in a single turn. I think this attack is pretty good if you manage to find the perfect time to use it because you will be rewarded immensely.
As for how many Iron Hands ex you want to put in your deck, I think you don’t want to bring 4 copies of this cards unless you really play around Iron Hands ex. Iron Hands ex is more of a supporting card that can be utilized if you manage to set up the board state in a certain way. Hence, I think even a single copy is already fine as you can search for it easily using Miraidon ex’s ability so you will be fine. But some people try playing 2 copies in their deck because the risk of getting prized while having the board completely set up is a little bit annoying. What do you guys think of this card? Interesting? Or is it not good for the format?
Electric Generator (Scarlet & Violet)
Electric Generator might be the first thing that comes to mind while discussing Trainer cards in the current Lightning-type deck. Because of its ability to quickly accelerate Lightning Energy cards to the Benched Lightning Pokemon—which may be quite important to certain Pokemon, such Raikou V or Raichu V—it can easily be a staple in the Lightning-type deck. Since Raikou V's attack cost is merely two energy, this card allows you to attack on the first turn. One more thing that makes Electric Generator a great card is that it is an Item card which you can use more than once. This makes filling up energy to your Pokemon on the board easier especially making a miracle first turn Iron Hands ex attack.
But this card has a flaw of its own, which is its own effect. You can only see the top five cards in your deck, which is less than when you use Max Elixir. This can be incredibly frustrating if you use it twice or even just once and miss out on any Energy cards because you might be falling behind with your own setup. Due to the fact the deck typically contains more than 12 energy cards, the deck may also have inherent disadvantages. If you somehow have more than 3 energy in your hand, you may have bad luck when using Electric Generator because you basically already have at least 25% of the energy cards in your hand and by only looking at the top 5 cards of your deck, you only look at 11% of your deck considering none of the energy are prized. But of course, with that many energy cards, one or two of them may be prized and the chance of hitting the energy card using an Electric Generator will be lower.
But still, with all these kinds of drawbacks, it is a great card introduced in the format because it can help Lightning-type decks in terms of energy acceleration and literally become a turbo deck. With that said, 4 copies of Electric Generator is the way to go in this kind of deck as you have limited energy acceleration options. It is a great card nonetheless.
Winners’ Decklist
Now let’s see what people bring on their Miraidon ex deck and we will start with the first winner of this season’s International Championship in Latin America, (LAIC) Juho Kallama.
First, we look at the Pokémon list. 3 copies of Miraidon ex followed by 2 copies of Raikou V and 1 copy of Raichu V seems to be a standard number in the current format as you mostly want to start with Miraidon ex so you can set up the board easily. Then, a 2-2 line of Flaaffy is pretty reasonable because you still want to have energy acceleration. Then, Juho also brings Iron Hands ex as the Prize card manipulator but Juhoo only brings 1 copy. As for the supporting Pokemon, Juho brings Squawkabilly ex as a draw engine while also helping to pile up Lightning Energy cards in the discard pile. Another one is one of the new additions, Mew ex, which can help you to draw cards and can also be used to attack, although it is very unlikely as you can copy the opponent’s attack. Then, Zapdos is also present to increase the damage of all Basic Lightning Pokemon as sometimes you need the extra 10 damage to knock out Pokemon with 230HP, 310HP, or another. The deck also bring 1 copy of Zeraora which is pretty interesting because if you look at it carefully, you can attack using its first attack which only costs 1 Lightning Energy and deals an easy 60 damage to your opponent if it is an Evolution Pokemon. It also has a free Retreat Cost so you can use Zeraora as a pivot while you are using Electric Generator. Overall, this is a pretty solid list and with the addition of Iron Hands ex, you get to have more attacking options when you face many deck variants.
As for Supporter cards, Juho brings quite a few supporter cards starting from Professor’s Research which can easily fresh your hand with 7 new cards while discarding cards from your hand which could be Lightning Energy cards, Boss’s Orders which can easily gust your opponent, Arven which can easily help you to find Item cards and Tool cards simultaneously, Iono which can easily disrupt your opponent’s hand. I think the number of Professor’s Research and Boss’s Orders in Juho’s deck are the ‘sweet’ spot for the current Miraidon ex list while I still think that Iono can be mixed with Judge too as you may not want to put your hands or shuffle up your opponent into bigger hands. You can also try to add more Arven as you can search for more specific cards, especially in the early part of the game.
Then we move on to the searcher cards. With Miraidon ex’s ability in mind, there are not many searcher cards to be played because the goal is to find Miraidon ex in your opening hand. Hence, Juho only plays a single copy of Nest Ball and 4 copies of Ultra Ball. Nest Ball is quite reasonable because most of the Pokemon cards are Basic Pokemon so you basically can call them anytime. But cards like Flaaffy can’t be searched and played using Nest Ball. Hence, Ultra Ball is being played. Ultra Ball can also help thin your hand by discarding Lightning Energy cards so you can try to pile up Lightning Energy cards in the discard pile while searching for Flaaffy to evolve it onto Mareep and recycle the energy cards back to the field using its ability. Ultra Ball also can search for any card in the deck so bringing 4 copies is a big help.
As for the other Item cards, Juho brings 4 copies of Electric Generator which is the go-to number unless you want to bet yourself on a lower number that you can hit the energy out of all of them. Then, Juho brings 2 copies of Switch Cart which can easily switch out almost any of our Pokemon from the active spot while healing them for 30 damage. The healing part is very crucial because you can mess up the damage calculation from the Lost Box deck or other decks as you may get out from their knockout range. Last but not least, Juho also brings 2 copies of Escape Rope which can easily help you to switch Pokemon but also disrupt the opponent’s momentum. Escape Rope can also help you in a pinch if you are facing decks that have low Benched Pokemon as the opponent has limited options to switch their Active Pokemon with. Juho also brings Super Rod. This can come in handy as you recycle back your Pokemon and just call them out again using Miraidon ex so you can still continue your attack.
We also have 2 Tool cards, Forest Seal Stone will be the VSTAR Power for this deck and an exact searcher for you. Then Bravery Charm which will be your survival card as you may face decks that can OHKO your Pokemon. You can prolong the game while setting up the board because you will be safe and sound as you have an HP boost from Bravery Charm. But beware of Lost Vacuum or other Tool removal cards!
Last but not least is the Stadium cards where Juho plays 2 copies of Path to the Peak which will be very crucial in shutting down the opponent. Path to the Peak can be used once you already finished setting up using Miraidon ex so you can shut down your opponent such as Charizard ex, Gardevoir ex, or other Rule Box Pokemon as the current format is filled with Rule Box Pokemon with abilities. I think this is a great decision to include Path to the Peak.
Overall, I think this deck is very solid because even though a lot of people saying that Miraidon ex is mid, the deck is still fairly strong and Juho proves the deck by winning the LAIC. The addition of Squawkabilly ex and Iron Hands ex may become the decider here.
Up next, we will also see quite a similar build by John Walter Kriewall who won the Regional Toronto.
Similar to Juho, John still brings the same lineup of Miraidon ex, and Raikou V, but increases the number of Raichu V. John also brings the same number of Flaaffy evoline, Zapdos, Mew ex, and Squawkabilly ex. The thing that is different here is the addition of Flying Pikachu V. Flying Pikachu V is a unique addition since Se Jun Park introduced it by winning the final season of the Korean League. It serves quite similar to Zeraora which has no Retreat Cost so you can use it as a pivot but you can also use it to attack. Its first attack, Thunder Shock, even though only deals 20 damage, you can get the chance to paralyze your enemy. I know it is a coin flip, but hey, you got to maximize all you got, right? Then its second attack, Fly, has a 3 Colorless Energy cost and deals 120 damage. The damage itself can chip down bulky enemies so your Miraidon ex can hit to knock them out. However, its effect may become a double-edged sword for you. As you flip coins, you never want to get tails because your attack will be for nothing. However, if you flip heads, you will be rewarded immensely because you can get yourself protection for the next turn. I think this is a unique and cool choice as when this deck won the Regional, Paradox Rift was still not legal to be played so the choice falls to Flying Pikachu V.
As for the supporter cards, John brings quite the same lineup because, in terms of the card pool, there are not many changes in the format. John brings the same supporters such as Professor’s Research, Boss’s Orders, Iono, and Arven. However, instead of playing a full copy of Iono, John decides to bring Judge which is very reasonable. You can disrupt your opponent’s hand by playing Judge as some of them may have a very big hand such as Lost Box deck. You can also refresh your hand by shuffling your hands back even though you only get 4 cards. But still, it is better than being bricked.
Next up is the Item cards where it turns out that John plays the same amount for each card. I think it is because John and Juho play the same strategy overall hence there is not much room for changes in Item cards. As for the other cards, John brings exactly the same Tool cards but what surprises me is that John decides to bring 3 copies of Path to the Peak and only a single copy of Collapsed Stadium. Collapsed Stadium can be a very interesting card to pick up because you can disrupt your opponent’s board by limiting their space. However, this can come back to you if you want to attack using Raikou V as you will have less power when attacking. But overall, Collapsed Stadium is a great stadium to disrupt the enemy's pace while also trying to save your Pokemon such as Squawkabilly ex or Mew ex from being targeted.
Overall, the deck is actually strong as it is but once inconsistency strikes, the deck falls pretty quickly. I even once played a game where 3 of my Electric Generators didn’t hit anything. But I think in the current format, the deck is already strong and can still be a great contender for Top Cut although it may not have a high consistency like the other decks do. But once you set up your board, the deck is pretty much rock-’n’-rollin.
Tier Conclusion
As we come to the final section of the article, we need to decide the deck’s tier. With Juho winning the LAIC and John winning the Regional Toronto, it shows that Miraidon ex is a strong deck from the start. However, consistency and damage caps may hinder the deck from going further up the format with the likes of Gardevoir ex. With that in mind, we also can’t neglect the fact that the deck has one of the highest damage potentials in the format with Raichu V being the attacker. But still, consistency in getting the energy is a big problem if you don’t hit it using Electric Generator.
Based on the achievement and the performance of the deck, the deck will be a Tier 1 deck. The performance of the deck really surprised many people and sparked controversy with the addition of Iron Hands ex. I really hope we get to see more cards being introduced so we can see more variations of Miraidon ex deck popping off in big tournaments. But for now, the deck is strong enough to be a top contender in the format.
Afterword
What do you guys think of the Miraidon ex deck? I do enjoy playing this deck as you can easily set up the board pretty well and the damage potential with Raikou V and Raichu V is astonishingly great in this format. You also get the chance to play Iron Hands ex which can take an additional Prize card. However, the consistency issue with Electric Generator and no consistent draw engine can take this deck down pretty easily. Have you guys won with your Miraidon ex deck? Comment down below!
This is an ongoing project on pokemoncard.io and I really appreciate all the feedback. I plan to do this on a monthly basis so you can at least grasp what is happening over the month and I think it is a very safe cycle time considering that our set is not released once a month so you guys can still see how the format goes.
Life is too short to be anything but happy! - Arelios
There may be some mistakes and missing points of review in this writing. Please kindly comment to share your corrections and point of view too.
